Things You Find in the Field: Pyramidal Objects #3

A few years back, while out taking a set of roads that makes a large loop starting from Highway 50 at either Garnet Hill or Ely, going either northeast or north and then going west, then heading north and west some more, and then running back south to Highway 50 at the Thirty Mile Road junction, MOH and I ran across this wooden pyramid at Summit Springs near Piscevich Summit (MSRMaps location and also see the Google Maps Location at the end of this post).

A closer view of the wooden pyramid.

Even closer.

I really don't know what this type of structure is used for, but went inside to take a look.

Inside view: a metal pipe runs up one wall and out the top.

Another inside view.

Possibly this small structure was used as a smoke house? (And although I don't see a lot of coating of the walls by creosote, some planks look darkened.)

Inside looking out toward a tree near the spring.

A second inside-looking-out view, this time past tree No. 2 toward the broad curve into Bothwick Creek canyon, which runs off to the north (right).

Smoke in the Black Rock & Smoke Creek Deserts

Smoke over the Black Rock Desert, as seen from the east on the Jungo Road. Smoke is probably from the Salt Fire north of Redding.
Smoke over the Smoke Creek Desert, as seen from the southwest part of the Black Rock Desert looking toward Gerlach. Smoke is from the Chips fire near Belden and Caribou, CA, and the Peak fire in the mountains southwest of Milford, CA.
Smoke over the Black Rock Desert, as seen from Coyote Spring Dune (MSRMaps location, Google Maps location), looking east toward Trego Hot Springs.
Smoke over the Smoke Creek Desert southwest of Gerlach, as seen from Coyote Spring Dune. Newish jeep for scale.
Mirage on the Black Rock Desert, looking southwest toward Gerlach, the green patch or oasis in the middle ground, and at smoke beyond the peaks of the Fox Range in the background.
Smoke over the southern Smoke Creek Desert, looking south from a point on the Smoke Creek Desert Road, about four miles nearly due south of the mouth of Five Springs Canyon and about four miles southeast of Granite Spring. The darker hills on the left are in the Fox Range near Reynard siding; the lighter hills behind them are in the Fox Range near Wild Horse, Pole, and Rough Canyons.
Another shot from the same angle, with a thin mirage on the desert (click to enlarge). The farther pale blue hills beyond the ones near Wild Horse Canyon, et al, include low hills near Sano siding and Emerson Pass, the Terraced Hills just north of Pyramid Lake, and the Virginia Mountains on the west side of Pyramid Lake.

Photos are from 3Aug2012.

SWxS to SSW of Center: The West Northumberland Canyon Springs and Northumberland Pass

In summer, the spring area in West Northumberland Canyon is one of few sources of water on the east side of Big Smoky Valley, and it's way up the canyon and out of the way for Highway 8A travelers (now S.R. 376). Better bets for finding water while traveling through Big Smoky Valley are the many running creeks coming off the east side of the Toiyabe Range, more than 15 miles across the valley from this often wet and muddy spring area (MSRMaps location).

On our mid-January trek up West Northumberland Canyon, we came to a large ice floe that had completely cut the road in the area of the West Northumberland Canyon springs. The slick ice was easy to track across, though staying to the right was entirely necessary to prevent sliding off into the ditch on the left side of the road.
I didn't stop to examine the ice prior to crossing; I instead followed existing tracks and stopped on the far, uphill side of the ice, to get this shot looking looking west-northwest, back down the canyon.
Like I said, the ice floe went entirely across the road.
In fact, the entire spring area was covered with ice, as seen in this shot looking northwest toward the lower end of the spring and the remains of a small mill.
The frozen spring upstream a bit: Freezing aparently caused the water to flow around the spring and marsh area and onto the road, where it froze solid in a shady spot.

From the springs, we wound our way up a few switchbacks toward the Northumberland gold mine (currently inactive), making it to the pass, which has been somewhat relocated from its original sit by mining activity. (Original map location of Northumberland Pass; a newer air-photo shows the pass a little to the north of the old site.)
We had a fine view from the pass, looking back to the northwest over the north part of the Northumberland caldera, and across Big Smoky Valley, all the way to the Toiyabe Range. The high peak in the Toiyabe Range north of Kingston Canyon (the low-ish spot beyond the reddish hill of tuff of Hoodoo Canyon) is Bunker Hill, at 11,473 feet.

From the pass, we drove down East Northumberland Canyon into Monitor Valley, to the Monitor Valley salt flat, the Potts Ranch hot springs, and The Geographical Center of Nevada.

Related Posts (in order of posting; #s indicate order in real time):
A Soak at Spencer Hot Springs (1)

The Geographic Center (8)

West to Southwest of Center: Beers and Roads and Folds and Things (2)

ENE of Center: Breccia at Devils Gate (3)

South of Center: Potts Ranch Hot Springs (7)

South by West of Center: Monitor Valley Salt Flat or Dry Lake (6)

Backroads: Too Cold to Change a Flat, and other Considerations (9)

SW to SWxS of Center: Northumberland Canyon (4)

SWxS to SSW of Center: The West NU Canyon Springs and Northumberland Pass - this post (5)

South of Center: Potts Ranch Hot Springs

I'm not exactly sure where to start on the way to ending up at Northumberland Pass and the Northumberland caldera, so we'll start at The Geographic Center of Nevada and work more or less backwards in time. MOH and I had taken two trips to Austin, with major and minor side trips into the caldera and to Spencer Hot Springs on both trips.

On the second trip, we ended our second day at the sign for the geographic center. We started in Austin, drove over Austin and Bob Scott Summits on snowy roads, went down old Highway 8A (now NV S.R. 376) in a dust storm, crossed Big Smoky Valley on the graveled Northumberland Mine road, and meandered into the central and south part of Northumberland caldera on good and cruddy dirt roads. We then proceeded back to the Northumberland Mine road, went up Northumberland Canyon, crossed Northumberland Pass, and headed down East Northumberland Canyon into Monitor Valley. It had been a long day. My photos began at 9:40 a.m. in Austin and ended at 4:35 p.m at the north end of Monitor Valley after a road trip of more than a 100 miles, not counting our side trip into the caldera.

Our first stop on this backward trek is Potts Ranch and Potts Ranch Hot Springs, located about 16 to 17 miles nearly due south of center.

Potts Ranch ranch house.

We drove into Potts Ranch from the south, following tentative directions heard the night before at the International bar in Austin, which assumed that we'd be coming in from the north via the Pete's Summit road. Fortunately, I also had a set of printed out topo maps, although the ones I had didn't name Potts Ranch or give a name to the nearby hot springs. Potts Ranch is shown on the 7.5' topo map of the area.

A stone building just behind the ranch house.

Our verbal directions mentioned this stone building, so we knew we were on the right track.
It was a frigid afternoon, and ice covered the flat north of the dirt road approaching the ranch house, where the creek flowing north from the hot springs must have overrun its banks. Other ranch ruins can be seen in the distance on the right, and cows are grazing in the far field on the left. Sastrugi shapes in the snow suggest a dominant wind direction from the north whenever the snow was blowing, though the wind was blowing from the south while we were there.
Here we're looking south at the frozen creek and at two reddish brown hills of Tertiary ash-flow tuff. To get to the hot springs, we'll drive just north and then east of the closest hill, then we'll follow a rutted dirt road all the way to the south end of the far hill.
The tub was empty when we arrived, so we moved the three black plastic pipes onto the metal rail so the filling process could begin. We also plugged the drain hole.
I think the idea is that you can fill the tank with one, two, or three of the pipes depending on what temperature you prefer. We wanted the water to be as hot as possible.
While waiting for the tank to fill, we walked around and looked at the marshy, grassy wetlands, which is drained by several steaming hot creeks. The Toquima Range is in the background.
A second hot creek in the foreground and a distant hot creek in the background give off steam, again with the Toquima Range in the background.

Another view of the same hot creeks.

Here I've walked around to a small warm or hot pond that may be fed by the same spring feeding the bathing tub. The Monitor Range, on the east side of Monitor Valley, is in the background.

Frozen grasses on pond's edge.

About this time, with the tub almost half full, we realized that neither one of us wanted to face the chilling wind or experience the icicles that would hang off our hair and face after bathing in the not-quite-hot-enough water (reported at around 100°F). We pulled the three black plastic pipes off the metal rail, unplugged the drain hole, and got in the truck.
We stopped at the spring source of the hot creek that supplies water to the soaking tub, before driving out and back to the main road north.

Green plants growing along (and in) the hot creek downstream from its source spring; ice on grass or sedge.

Green to light bluish plants or algae, waving or rippling in the flowing water.

A Soak at Spencer Hot Springs

It was just a week ago. MOH and I were heading home from holidays travels, and we had stopped in Austin, NV, making it there for Serbian Xmas. We had driven my truck over the mountain into Big Smoky Valley, down old Highway 8A, and across the valley on the Northumberland Mine road where we were looking for a long lost spot from a 1978 adventure. After roughing it over various relatively unused and poorly maintained dirt roads, we crossed the valley to get back on 8A, headed north, and crossed the valley again to have a soak at Spencer Hot Springs.
We ended up at the main hot spring, the one with the large pool, interior sitting stones that form a circle, and exterior deck. You can see a couple of the large sitting stones below water level on the right side of the pool; these form a nearly complete circle, although they are partly caved in on the far side. They get reset every now and then. You can also see the edge of a dark metal contraption just on the far left of the photo.
This metal framework has been put in place sometime in the last year and a half, to keep people (and dogs) out of the very hot source pool that has formed around the pipe that taps the hot water. It's quite ugly, and makes the springs look a bit smaller, blocking what view there is to the south.

Yes, the water is hot. That's rather the point, isn't it?

It's likely that the 165 written on the pipe indicates the temperature in Fahrenheit of water coming out of the well. Various temperatures have been reported for the main spring: 144°F was reported in 1917; a higher temperature of 162°F was reported in 1974 (two sources from Garside and Schilling, 1979).

Temperature of the geothermal reservoir at Spencer was estimated at 216°F in 1981 by the Nevada Department of Energy, and at 253°F in 1974 by Mariner and others (the latter also in Garside and Schilling, 1979).
Water from the source well flows through a pipe into the main soaking pond.
Temperature of the soaking pond can be regulated with this valve. While we were there, the water was bearably hot, hot enough for us to feel comfortable after getting out into the chilling and persistent wind.
After our fairly short soak, we took the main dirt road from the spring northwestward toward the site of the old Frontier and the junction of old 8A with Highway 50, thence over Bob Scott and Austin Summits back to Austin.

In this YouTube video from June 2010, by davidsquall351, you can see the way the main hot spring looked prior to the metal contraption being placed over the source well. You can also hear the gurgling of the water, and the braying of wild burros. The local burro herd make an appearance in the latter half of the video.

The burro herd typically has one mule or horse tagging along with it. We didn't see them while we were there last week, but do see them fairly routinely. Pictures of a couple of them are included in this trip report. They roam at least as far the north as Highway 50, which is only four miles away. We've seen them at least six miles from the springs.

Four Years Ago: Spencer Hot Springs, Kingston Summit, to Fallon

I'm going to depart a little from my usual "X Years Ago Today" format and go with this post, a few days late, which follows on from my 9-21 Newark Valley post of last year. That way, I don't have to wait one more year!
9-21-2007: After driving south from Highway 50 east of Austin onto old Highway 8A, now Nevada S.R. 367, we stopped at Spencer Hot Springs and soaked briefly in a lower tub, one just below and west of the main spring. It’s a tub that MOH and I hadn't been to before, although it’s possible that I camped next to it a number of years ago while at the springs with NJ&O. The tub was well set up and was at a good temperature.

From Spencer, we drove to old Highway 8A and then south to Kingston Canyon.

View of the Toquima Range from Highway 8A.

We're looking across Big Smoky Valley toward the Northumberland caldera, with the wide, flat-topped mountain in the far right being Mount Jefferson, the sixth highest peak in Nevada, with the third highest prominence.
We wound through the small village of Kingston, driving by the rundown cabin I lived in back in '79 and '80, and by the land-uphill, takeoff-downhill dirt airstrip. The road meanders through town and then into Kingston Canyon.

The Kingston Canyon road, a good graveled road, then goes through and under willows and cottonwoods, past a small lake or two, past a campground, a couple fishermen, and an old ranger station.

Up ahead, the road switchabacks up to the pass.

Just past the ranger station, the road crosses Kingston Creek, shortly thereafter making a broad turn to the northeast. After the turn, the road abruptly steepens to switchback through a rocky section, 4WD usually (always?) required, to the 8660-foot pass between Kingston Canyon and Big Creek Canyon.

View northward from the pass between Kingston and Big Creek Canyons.

The road then descends less abruptly and with gentler turns into the southern high reaches of Big Creek Canyon—a long, north-south canyon full of aspens, scattered quartz boulders, abundant sagebrush, steep slopes, and a creek stocked with trout.

Quartz-vein boulders littering the west slopes of the 11,000-foot-plus Toiyabe Range ridgeline.

One of the larger quartz-vein boulders.

Old ore bin in upper Big Creek Canyon.

After passing Big Creek Campground, we drove out of the canyon onto the western slope of the Toiyabe Range above upper Reese River Valley.

Sand Mountain.

We then drove forthwith to Fallon, stopping only at Middlegate Junction to get a soda and snack. Middlegate Junction, as is often the case, was suffering a horrendous dust storm due to strong winds coming north up the valley from Gabbs. Wind was blasting Highway 50 at a perfect 90º angle. Farther on, sand was spraying from Sand Mountain, making life miserable in the RV city sitting at its base.

We got a room in Fallon that night, then went for a fine Mexican dinner at a little cantina south of the main drag (Highway 50). The chips and salsa were excellent; the waiters and waitresses were dressed in black and white outfits like tuxedos. We had first dined there many years ago after retreating from a subzero winter trip to Spencer Hot Springs. The temperature in Big Smoky Valley had been -18º F, and amidst unknown electrical problems, a moonless darkness, and a foot of snow, the heater in the camper wouldn't kick on. Fallon was the closest place for repairs on that earlier trip; it was a welcome stopping point four years ago.